World Happiness Report

Natalia Maldonado

2025-01-23

Data Sources and Collection Process

Sources

The data used in the World Happiness Report is derived from:
  • Gallup World Poll: Provides survey responses from over 150 countries.
  • World Bank: Supplies economic indicators like GDP per capita.
  • World Health Organization (WHO): Offers health-related data, such as life expectancy.

Data Collection Process

  • Surveys: Respondents answer a series of questions about their lives and perceptions.
  • Economic and Health Data: Collected from global institutions to complement survey responses.
  • Standardization: Data is adjusted for comparability, such as converting GDP to purchasing power parity (PPP).
  • Key Calculation: Combines survey results and external indicators to compute the Happiness Score.

Data

Happiness Data
Country year LogGDP SocialSup HealthExp Freedom Generosity Corruption PosAffect NegAffect Region OriginalGDP
Bulgaria 2023 10.272790 0.9349162 66.7 0.7543243 -0.13129753 0.9478562 0.5394388 0.1918842 Central and Eastern Europe + CIS 33403.376
China 2023 9.860808 0.7969825 69.0 0.7933784 -0.03157096 NA 0.7079852 0.2103501 Asia 22137.600
Colombia 2023 9.666558 0.8332084 69.7 0.8234711 -0.14246459 0.8702267 0.7541034 0.2854169 Latin America and Caribbean 18692.385
India 2023 8.919471 0.6328966 61.5 0.8996010 0.12088692 0.7698518 0.6987651 0.3885257 Asia 9160.064
Iran 2023 9.650888 0.8094789 66.9 0.6154001 0.25360298 0.7642531 0.5333526 0.4246328 Middle East and Africa 16154.000
Luxembourg 2023 11.648711 0.8791953 71.7 0.9108133 0.03343977 0.3432108 0.7507005 0.1944953 NorthAmerica + ANZ +Western EU 132846.574
Happiness Score Data
Country Happiness year
Afghanistan 1.7210 2024
Afghanistan 1.8590 2023
Afghanistan 2.4038 2022
Afghanistan 2.5229 2021
Afghanistan 2.5669 2020
Afghanistan 3.2033 2019

Variables

  • Ladder Score: Self-reported happiness on a 0–10 scale.
  • Log GDP per Capita: Adjusted economic output per person adjust for PPA (log-transformed).
  • Social Support: % of respondents with reliable friends or family.
  • Healthy Life Expectancy: Expected years of healthy living.
  • Freedom to Make Life Choices: % feeling free to make personal decisions.
  • Generosity: % donating money to charity recently.
  • Perceptions of Corruption: Trust in public institutions (inverse).
  • Dystopia Residual: Captures unmeasured influences on happiness.

Map

Correlation Heatmap between Variables

Top & Bottom 5 Countries by Happiness Score

Comparison of the Happiness Report between Regions

Happiness Score vs GDP per Capita by Region

Positive Affect by Region

Comparison Happiness Score and Positive Affect

Conclusion

  • Measuring happiness is more complex than it seems, as a direct question may oversimplify what “being happy” truly means.
  • This analysis reveals that daily emotions (Positive Affect) and reported happiness are not perfectly aligned.
  • Happiness depends not only on what we feel daily but also on social, cultural, and economic factors that shape how people perceive their lives overall.